


Mayday

by EllaBesmirched (El_Bell)



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Actually a tiny bit futuristic, Alpha Levi (Shingeki no Kyojin), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Mostly Pwp, Omega Erwin Smith, idk man it's abo what else do I SAY, trapped on an island with nothing but hormones and our feelings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-17
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-06-29 22:45:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 12,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19840066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/El_Bell/pseuds/EllaBesmirched
Summary: Based on this Twitter game generated prompt:Erwin and Levi are soldiers-- a sniper/spotter pair. They’ve worked together for a long time. They work well together.As soldiers, Levi and Erwin are expected to keep their A/B/O status to themselves. They receive an injection four times a year that suppresses secondary gender characteristics. The reason is pretty practical in nature-- preventing soldiers from scenting/going into heats/ruts, etc. keeps them focused on the mission, and safe from enemies.Levi and Erwin have a very successful mission, but things take a very unexpected turn for the worse during the extraction. Their helicopter goes down and they’re stranded. They’re safe, with food and water to spare, but completely isolated. They radio in for help and are told they’ll have to sit tight-- the situation has changed and it’ll be a few weeks before it’s safe to retrieve them again.Normally that wouldn’t be a big deal, except both Levi and Erwin are due for their suppressant injection.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Uhhhhh have a thing? 
> 
> I just. I just feel like posting this but it's not QUITE done yet so here's part one. :}
> 
> Perhaps a touch unedited. Forgive me.

Levi's ears ring. For a moment there is so much smoke and bright, white light, he thinks he must be gone. Out of one hell and into the next. The ringing in his ears grows and everything beyond it feels so silent. That's the worst part, the silence. 

He rolls onto his belly and hides his face in the crook of his arm, tries to suck air that isn't smoke. It gets darker, and he blinks to clear his eyes. He's an idiot. He kept them open when the helicopter hit the ground, wanted to see his death coming. 

The burst of fire blinded him. 

He blinks, tries to clear his eyes. They water from the smoke, but the green and brown splotches on his fatigues come into view, and then he can see his own fingers. Not blind then. 

It's so quiet. Just the crackle of the fire and the crash of water, somewhere in the distance. 

Erwin. 

Levi is up and stumbling forward before the word has finished forming in his mind. 

Erwin. 

He covers his face with his forearm, peers through the smoke and spots him, laying on his back not so far away. He is so still. 

Erwin.

Levi lurches toward him, calls his name and can't hear his own voice. Erwin doesn't move. 

Please. Get up. Move, old man. Come on. Move. 

Erwin doesn't budge, and Levi's eyes track over his still, soot stained face, to his chest to--

He surges up. Erwin is trapped under some mangled, twisted piece of metal and Levi flings himself at it, pushes it aside like it weighs nothing and it is only after he's dropped it a foot away that he realizes he shouldn't have been able to budge it at all. It should have taken three men to even rock the thing but Levi just-- deposited it out of the way like it was nothing. 

Erwin's right side is bloody, and Levi flings Erwin over his shoulders without thinking, without feeling anything but blood in his ears, screaming at him to move, to get Erwin to safety. He dashes to the shelter of the trees, and feels his heart drop when he looks down at Erwin's still form. His right side is bloody and singed and Levi can tell it's. It's bad. He can't see Erwin's fingers.

"Erwin." 

His voice is too loud in his own head. Erwin doesn't move. 

No. 

Levi touches him on the chest, is almost afraid to, but knows he must. Erwin is just so still. 

He is still bleeding though. Levi finally forces himself to look at the twisted wreckage of Erwin's right arm and realizes blood is coming from somewhere in slow spurts. His heart is still beating. 

Levi yanks off his belt, brain screaming tourniquet tourniquet tourniquet and when he is done he doesn't remember what he'd done, doesn't remember what Erwin's arm had looked like under all that blood and seared fabric. 

He doesn't remember anything until he's yelling into a microphone for help. 

He hears his rank, hears his last name over and over again and it isn't until he hears, "Levi. Talk to me," that things come back. He's been rambling, yelling for backup, for another extraction team, hasn't been listening to the voice on the other side. 

"The pilot," Hanji says. 

Levi finally looks to his right, sees dead eyes staring at him. He'd yanked the pilot's helmet off to get to the comm and make the distress call. The man is very, very dead. 

"No," Levi says. 

"Erwin." 

"He's--" Levi takes a deep breath all at once. Erwin. Erwin. "Alive. Wounded." 

"You?" 

"Fine," Levi says automatically. "I'm fine." 

"Are you safe?" 

Levi looks around and knows instantly where they are. "Yeah. Yeah, we're good."

"Lemme see Erwin." 

The next few minutes blur. Their supplies had been protected with armored cases, and they're scattered all over the crash site. It takes Levi too long to find the cases Hanji describes. One with communication equipment, another with medical supplies. 

But he finds everything. He moves on autopilot, has Hanji talk him through how to set up the comms so they can see Erwin. Then they talk Levi through assessing the wound. Erwin's right arm is gone. 

Levi doesn't let himself think about it. Levi doesn't let himself think at all for a long time. He just acts. Does exactly what Hanji tells him and at the end of it all, Erwin's clothes are cut away, on the right side, so Levi can see how bruised and scrapped his chest is, and Erwin's right arm is bandaged with neat, clean wraps. It's missing just below the bicep and Levi doesn't remember tending to him. 

His brain seems to catch up too late, like everything in his head skips until he's back in the present again. He knows Hanji had walked him through a very thorough bit of medical work. He'd cut away ruined flesh and then cauterized what was left behind, treated the area with burn gel, and then bandaged everything up. 

And Levi knows that's not right. He shouldn't have cut or cauterized anything. He should have worked to stop the bleeding and gotten Erwin to a real medic. 

He looks at Hanji's grim face over the little comm screen and says, "Where the fuck is my extraction." 

Hanji swallows. "The situation has changed, Corporal Ackerman." 

Levi stares at them. 

Hanji swallows again. Their voice is professional to a fault. Levi knows how much they hate saying this. 

"You were shot down." 

Levi blinks. That doesn't make sense. The hostiles don't have fucking guns. 

The rest blurs again. Sit tight. Find shelter. Stay safe. They will be in contact. They will send an extraction team as soon as it's safe to do so. But that could be weeks. 

Hanji lowers their voice at the end and says, "I want regular updates on Sergeant Smith. If things turn..." 

Levi nods grimly. He understands. Erwin would too, if he was awake. If he's safe, if they're both safe, there's no real rush. No use putting men in danger to retrieve them. 

But if Erwin is more than just uncomfortable, they'll risk lives to save him. He's important. Even missing an arm, he's important. 

***

Erwin loves Levi the moment he sees him. He loves him in that way he’s heard is particular to omegas, even though he’s never felt it before himself. A sort of instantaneous chemical attraction, even though that’s certainly not what’s happening here. When Erwin gets close enough to Levi to shake his hand (he doesn’t) all he smells is soap and clean laundry. Erwin is impressed Levi doesn’t smell like urchin. He looks like one. Furious eyes, prison issued clothes. But he’s clean. 

He’s been given a suppressant too. The prison population has all been dosed. Safer that way, and more practical than keeping the alpha and omega population separate. Suppressant injections are cheap, even if they are well regulated. 

Erwin stares at him, asesses, can’t help but be curious. It’s a matter of record that Levi was dosed, so he’s not a beta. And he’s so small, lightly built. Erwin is proof that physicality can’t be fully relied upon as an indicator of alpha/omega status but there are still trends. Erwin is an outlier, an exception to the rule. 

Plus there is something in his bearing, some learned aggression, some instantly recognizable stubborn insistence on survival that alphas never have. It’s all false bravado and over-confidence with them. This isn’t that. 

Levi is dangerous. 

Erwin can see it in his eyes. 

He’s fairly sure he knows what that means. To be Levi’s age, Levi’s build, Levi’s-- _fuck_ but he’s pretty-- and to be alone, unmated, childless. To have come from where Levi came from. 

That means he’s stubborn. That means he’s strong. 

And yes. 

That means he’s dangerous. 

After all, the only people who think alphas are the ones to watch have never seen a cornered omega before. There’s a reason omegas are the ones entrusted with the children, after all, and in Erwin’s opinion simply bearing them isn’t it. Levi stands perfectly still, and Erwin has never found any other man so intimidating. That is not to say Erwin is intimidated. Only that if he were a lesser man he would be. Unless he was also very stupid. 

Erwin jerks his chin at the prison guards, who glare like they’ll fight, but then Erwin’s soldiers leave too, and the guards aren’t really willing to argue after that. 

When they are alone, Erwin sits down in the provided chair, across from Levi’s cell door. He takes his hat off, holds it in his hands, and relaxes into his seat, just a little. 

Levi just glares at him. 

Erwin knows he will never forget this moment for as long as he lives. He knows it will live in his memory as the moment he truly _understood_ why some men killed for love, or died for want of it. He is certain in the instant their eyes met that Levi had slithered under Erwin’s skin and lodged there, and he examines the pain of it with the detached, curious air of a scientist. Ah. So this is what this feels like. 

It doesn’t matter. Erwin is only here to recruit a handful of convicts that had expressed interest in having their sentences commuted in exchange for service. Once Erwin had explained what would be required of them, all of them had declined, slinked off to hide in their cells. It was better to be imprisoned than dead, perhaps. 

But then Erwin had seen Levi. 

It had been a picture, his mug shot, sitting on the warden’s desk. Levi had been arrested for petty theft, but he had a rap sheet longer than Erwin was tall, so prison it was. And then maximum security. And then solitary confinement. 

The warden had scoffed when he saw Erwin pick up the file and flip through it; it had only been sitting on his desk because Levi had just been sent to solitary again. He told Erwin Levi wasn’t worth the trouble. 

Erwin wasn’t so sure. 

“Hello, Levi.” He pauses, almost announces his rank, and then just says, “My name is Erwin.” 

Levi looks Erwin up and down and makes a short sound of disgust. “Tch.” 

For some reason, Erwin smiles. 

***

Erwin stirs once that night, and Levi gives him another sedative. Better to keep him asleep for the night. Better to hope the worst of the pain will have passed; Levi isn’t optimistic on that point but whatever small part of him is still capable of mercy is the part that makes his hands move, makes him fill the syringe and plunge it into Erwin’s neck. 

It is another part of him that carefully cleans Erwin’s face, that finishes cutting away Erwin’s ruined shirt and wipes the blood and soot from his chest, that takes his boots and socks off his feet and his belt and gear off his hips so he can sleep comfortably. He finds their bedrolls and he sets one up, gets Erwin on top of it, and put his under Erwin’s head so he can rest. 

Then he begins to clean the campsite. He doesn’t know what else to do. The helicopter is a mangled mess, but most of what was in it had survived the crash. All their equipment, their guns, their ghillie suits, their scopes, their mess kits, all of it had been locked in an armoured trunk before take off, and Levi pulls it out of the wreckage and drags it over to Erwin. 

He saves everything he can find. The cushions from their seats, the cracked helmet he’d been wearing, intact pieces of the engine. 

He stays up all night, checking on Erwin every few minutes and cleaning, cleaning, organizing, the rest. 

When the sun rises, he buries the pilot. He buries Erwin’s arm with him.

***

Levi is born for this. 

Erwin watches him destroy every physical fitness test and metric they have. He watches Levi scowl so fiercely at the drill sergeant, the man actually leaves Levi alone after that. He watches every other recruit very quickly learn to be terrified of Levi, and also that they can trust him. 

It’s miraculous, really. 

Every recruit in his class soon answers to him. He doesn’t seem to know it, doesn’t seem to realize how quickly they take to his command, or that he is the one they look too when training gets hard, when team efforts would otherwise fall apart, when they need a leader. 

What really stuns Erwin is the alphas. 

Their status is, of course, confidential. They keep it to themselves and the military doesn’t reveal it. It’s not even marked in their files-- there is one box for alphas and omegas, who will need suppressants, and another box for betas. 

But Erwin does the recruiting and civilians don’t take suppressants as a general practice. Erwin knows things no one else does, and who among his team are alphas or omegas is one of those things. In fact, Levi is the only one Erwin isn’t sure about, though he still has a pretty good idea. Those slim bones and light muscles are just so telling. 

Erwin watches Levi scowl down burly alphas three times his size, watches him bear his teeth like he’ll show his fangs. He never does. The suppressants prevent that. 

But the alphas stand down. 

It makes Erwin ache in ways he didn’t know he could, and he starts imagining what Levi looks like under his fatigues, starts imagining biting the hard muscle in his biceps and pressing his face into Levi’s soft, silky hair. 

He feels like a complete fool, to be so infatuated with a recruit. And a convict at that. 

But the thing is, Levi knows Erwin watches. And sometimes, Levi looks back. When he does, Erwin can’t explain what he sees, but he knows it is his, knows Levi doesn’t look at anyone else like that. 

When the time comes, he taps Levi for special ops training. He oversees that too. 

And when the time comes again, he tells Levi he needs a spotter. 

“Fuck you picking me for, blondie?” 

Erwin doesn’t acknowledge the insult, the lack of deference to an officer. It wouldn’t make any difference if he tried. 

“I need someone who can watch my back, Levi.” 

Levi stares at him. 

“Someone I can trust. Someone who’s not scared to do what needs doing.” 

Levi sniffs and lifts his chin, looks past Erwin. 

Erwin says quietly, “You want me find someone else?”

Levi scoffs. “Unless you gotta fucking death wish, I’m your man.” 

~

Erwin awakes slowly. It’s hard. He wants to drift off again, but he knows he shouldn’t, knows he’s been sleeping for a very long time. 

His right arm is on fire. 

It’s awful, the worst thing he’s ever felt, but there is also something familiar about it, something that tells him this pain is neither sharp nor sudden. He turns his head without opening his eyes and groans very softly when his head throbs. 

“Erwin.” 

He opens his eyes and finds Levi sliding into the dirt beside him, on his hands and knees, a tight, panicked look in his eye. 

Erwin squints at him and then closes his eyes again. “What’s…” 

Levi’s voice is so rich and deep and smooth, Erwin always finds it soothing. “We went down.” 

“How.” 

“Shot down, Four Eyes says.” 

“We-- what?” That didn’t make sense. “How long have we…” 

“Bout a day,” Levi says. “Can’t send an extraction until they neutralize the threat.”

Erwin rolls his eyes behind closed lids and then realizes something that makes his blood run cold. He’d tried to lift his hand, draw it to his forehead and thought he had but nothing had happened. He couldn’t feel-- “I can’t feel my fingers.” 

He opens his eyes in time to see Levi squeeze his shut. 

His heart plummets and he rips the blanket off his chest with his left hand. He freezes then. 

His chest is violently bruised. The awful gradient moves across his body, yellow in the middle to dark purple on the right side. His eyes track over the bruise, to his right arm and there is just… nothing. A bandage. White and pristine somehow. But. Nothing. 

He sits up. 

“Erwin.” 

Erwin says gruffly, “Extraction?” even though he knows the answer. 

“Han. Hanji talked me through-- they saw.” He stops talking and stares into Erwin’s eyes. “It’s not an emergency,” he says, voice cool, callus. “Not life threatening.”

Erwin grits his teeth when he says, “ _Not--”_

“Not with the medical supplies we have on hand. If it looks like.” Levi swallows and says gruffly, “If it looks like you’re gonna fucking bite it, I’ll make the call. Risk of staying right now--”

“Doesn’t outweigh the risk of sending someone.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

Erwin looks at him. It’s very rare that Levi calls him ‘sir,’ that he responds to anything like a proper soldier ought.

Erwin peers down at the empty air where his hand should be and says, “I can still feel my wrist.” 

“Yeah,” Levi says around a disaffected sniff. 

Erwin knows this is normal but that doesn’t help. He can feel his wrist. He can feel his whole arm, almost like it’s all small and shriveled and curled up under his bicep. And it hurts. It hurts. 

He grits his teeth again and Levi says, “Lucked out on medical supplies.” 

“What survived the crash?” 

Levi shrugs. 

“Pretty much everything except the bird and the pilot. Supplies were all locked in armoured cases so it all looks good for now.” 

“The pilot…” 

“Nose hit first,” Levi explains. “I think.”

Erwin puts his left hand over the bandage and winces. 

“Erwin…” Levi’s voice is too soft. It doesn’t sound right on him. 

Erwin tries to stand and Levi catches him, helps him up. 

“Fuck are you doing, old man? Sit down, the fuck.”

Erwin shakes his head and sits anyway. He probably lost too much blood. He feels weak all over, shivery. Fuck, it really hurts. Levi helps him back down, carefully, leaning his chest and his hair into Erwin’s space when he does it, holding more of Erwin’s weight than he should like it is effortless. 

“Where are we?” he says. 

Levi makes sure Erwin is fully seated before he lets him go and leans away. He smirks. “Landed in the middle of the fucking river.” 

Erwin furrows his brow. He knows what Levi means. They’d been flying over the River, last Erwin recalled. It’s a massive, flowing body of water and there are isolated islands situated all throughout, in places where the river splits and joins again. Most of them are too small or rocky to be useful, but a few are miles long and heavily forested. This must have been one of those. 

They’ll be safe from the hostiles at least. Only the abnormal ones can swim. 

Erwin grabs at his arm when it throbs and his mind whites out. 

“Take this.” 

He opens his eyes minutes later to see Levi holding out a pill. Erwin looks at it distrustfully. 

“You think I can’t fucking keep watch without your wounded ass?” Levi demands. “Take the fucking pill, Erwin.” 

Erwin does, though he feels weak for it. Levi looks at him, looks into his eyes. It takes all his willpower not to smile back. 

***

If Levi knew how to relax this might almost be it. Three full weeks pass and Erwin only gets stronger. They build a shelter sturdy enough to withstand the rare storm with the gutted cockpit of the helicopter, some broken pieces of metal, and space blankets. The catch fish and there’s enough vegetation to forage. It’s simple, really. Levi and Erwin have had worse missions together. 

Except Erwin is wounded. 

He does get stronger. His pain seems to be manageable. But the fact of his missing limb follows him like a stormcloud and Levi can see it. 

At the start of the fourth week, when Levi is changing Erwin’s bandages, something happens. 

Levi has gotten good at this now, and Erwin’s arm looks pink and tender, but fairly good as far as Levi can tell. He isn’t seeing any signs of infection, or really any signs that Erwin isn’t healing even better than they could have expected, all things considered. He is just starting to wrap fresh bandages around Erwin’s arm when he feels his fingertips snag on the fabric. 

Erwin is looking away, across the crash site. He never looks at his arm when Levi changes the bandages. So he doesn’t see Levi wrinkle his brows and look down. 

The fabric is caught on just the tiniest, barest glint of his claws. They retract when he stares and blinks, confusion percolating through his head, because that shouldn’t happen, not when he’s on military grade suppressants. 

Levi shakes his hand. 

“What’s wrong?” Erwin says, turning his head and meeting Levi’s eyes. 

Levi’s cheeks heat. “Nothing,” he says. Erwin doesn’t press him. Levi finishes with the bandages and goes to the comm equipment right away. They haven’t checked in with Hanji in a few days, and Levi sends a request for contact. Hanji takes a few minutes to ring in, but they do. 

“You got any update on that evac, Four Eyes?” Levi damands.

Hanji shakes their head apologetically. 

Levi grits his teeth and says, “Do me a favor and check my medical schedule, will you?” The tone in his voice makes Hanji furrow their brow. 

“ _Your--”_ When Levi just glares, Hanji starts typing. Levi watches the confusion wiped from their face all at once and exchanged for. Pity. 

Levi says, “You fucking serious.” 

Hanji swallows and winces when they say, “You were due last week.” 

Levi glowers at them. 

“You’ll probably. Usually when soldiers leave service, we taper them off over a couple months, but since we didn’t-- you-- you’ll probably… go into whatever it is--”

“Yeah, I got it,” Levi snaps. “What the fuck am I supposed to do? Send a goddamn extraction team.” 

“Levi, if we couldn’t-- for Erwin-- than we can’t because--” 

“We’re on the same schedule, idiot,” Levi says.

Hanji winces again. “You could…” 

“Fucking what?” 

Hanji doesn’t go on. Instead they say, “You’re safe, right? You said?” 

“That doesn’t mean we’re not on high fucking alert!” Levi snaps. That’s the real problem here. This shit is _distracting._ They can’t stay on guard if they’re busy trying not to tear each other’s heads off. Levi gets. Cranky during ruts. More than usual. More than he’s willing to deal with on a goddamn island in the middle of hostile territory with his heavily wounded superior officer beside him. And then if _Erwin--_

Levi never _really_ fights with Erwin and he doesn’t want to start because his goddamn hormones are out of wack from missing his shitting fucking injection. 

Hanji says, “I’m sorry. You’ll just have to. Push through.” 

Levi scowls. “Easy for you to fucking say,” he snaps. Hanji has no idea what any of this is like. Of course they fucking don’t. Hanji shrugs apologetically and Levi disconnects the comm before they can say anything else. 

When Levi turns his head, he finds Erwin watching him, eyes very, very wide. 

Levi winces, looks away. 

Erwin says, “I didn’t realize.” 

“Yeah.” 

Erwin swallows heavily. 

Levi hates this. The promise of quarterly suppressant injections had been part of the draw of the military to begin with. Levi hadn’t been able to afford them before, and he’d loathed feeling like he was being buffered about by the whims of the animal inside him, of the chemical pull of his hormones. He’d loathed the way the sweet, cheap, wannabe alluring scent of a needy omega made him feel, hated the spike of rage that wracked him when a scenting alpha caught him off guard. 

That had been the one upside of fucking _prison._ They injected him before he went in and suddenly he felt fucking clear headed. 

Levi curls his lips and Erwin says quietly, “You’re angry.” 

“Yeah, I’m fucking angry,” Levi snaps. “I thought I was done with this shit. Goddamn pansies should have sent an extraction weeks ago and now we’re stuck-- fuck.” 

Erwin smiles gently, says, “Take a breath.” 

Levi wants to glare at him but he can’t. Erwin is very good at making Levi feel soothed. He has no idea why. _Soothed_ isn’t really a word he’d use to ever describe his state of mind, but somehow, Erwin gives him that. 

Levi flinches then, wonders if he’s so agitated because. Because he’s been on suppressants for years now and suddenly they’re gone. 

He sniffs and mumbles, “Last time I. Before I got arrested.” 

Erwin is staring at Levi, clearly trying to hide the black look on his face. “I was nineteen when I enlisted.” 

“Shit,” Levi says. That’s seventeen years since Erwin dosed up. Almost half his fucking life. He’ll have it worse than Levi, that’s for certain. Levi doesn’t know what that means. For Erwin. If he were another man, Levi would suggest they spread out, find a place to just be alone. Some people go senseless during ruts. But Levi doesn’t think Erwin is one of those people. And at least there isn’t some omega around for them to bicker over. Or. Exacerbate things. Levi has never bickered over an omega in his life but he has no idea if Erwin has. 

It’s scary, that he could know Erwin so well and be so blind as to what will happen. But he’s known some who turn into entirely different people when their hormones get the best of them. 

Erwin could be like that. 

“Maybe we should. Split up,” Levi suggests. 

Erwin looks at him very strangely then, and says, “Really?” 

Levi grinds his jaw and looks down. 

Erwin says quietly, “Levi, you.”

“I hate this shit,” Levi tells him, lifting his eyes. “Makes me _cranky,_ alright? You know where I grew up.” 

Erwin meets Levi’s eyes and nods. 

“Yeah, well. Close fucking quarters. Every-- every _thing_ happened all at once and it was a goddamn nightmare. Place fucking _stank_ like omega all over and there was no where to be alone.” 

Erwin winces. Levi realizes he’s never told anyone that before, that he hates the scent of omega. It makes him an anomaly, makes him strange. Erwin probably thinks there’s something wrong with him. Broken alpha. 

He can’t explain that it’s the actual _smell_ that he despises and not the chemical reaction it brings with it. It’s a strange dichotomy. To sense something that makes him shudder and cringe in disgust even as his body, his chemistry, tells him to move closer, urges him on. 

Until he’d met Erwin, he thought being born an alpha-- not poor, not an orphan, but an alpha-- had been the worst thing that could have happened to him. 

But then Erwin had come and taken his hand and made the voice in his head go away and he’d reveled in the freedom. 

Erwin’s voice sounds strange, distant, sad, maybe even a little cold, when he says, “If you think that’s best.” 

Levi rolls his eyes and shrugs. They’re okay for now, at least. Probably for a few more days. Who knows. Maybe the extraction will come after all. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took a little longer than a planned, but, what can I say, Life gotta Life, you know~
> 
> I was originally planning on only doing two chapters but there will be one more now, to wrap things up :) 
> 
> I'll try to squeeze yet ANOTHER smut scene in just for fun though ;D

It’s hot. 

Erwin is melting from the inside out. The sun is so hot, beating down on the campsite, and Erwin can’t find any place cool enough to offer relief. It’s worse in their shelter. He almost wants to jump in the fucking river, except he knows he can’t risk getting river water on his arm. 

Levi doesn’t seem to notice at all. He’s wearing his jacket and even his cravat, and the sight of it makes Erwin cringe. 

“What?” Levi demands when he sees Erwin looking. 

Erwin glares at him and snaps, “You’re insane. Why are you wearing that?” 

Levi furrows his brow and looks down at his clothes. “What?” 

Erwin groans and says, “Your _jacket._ You’re gonna get heat stroke.” He knows he’s being ridiculous. Levi doesn’t even look like he’s sweating. But _how._

Levi narrows his eyes and says, “Erwin, it’s like seventy degrees.” 

Erwin scoffs at the shelter. There is a cracked thermometer in the cockpit. “That thing’s broken.” 

But Levi is staring at him very hard now, and he takes a step closer. “Do you feel okay?” he says in concern. 

“I’m _fine,”_ Erwin drawls. “I’m just hot.” 

Levi comes close and put his hand on Erwin’s forehead, eyes on Erwin’s arm when he does. “You--” 

Erwin doesn’t hear the rest. He doesn’t hear the rest because he and Levi have been snipping at each other, moving around each other, keeping their distance. Erwin’s bandages last a few days now, before it’s time to apply new ones so they hadn’t been within five feet of each other since the conversation with Hanji. Since Levi admitted to hating the scent of an omega and something inside Erwin had curled up and died. 

But Levi is close now. Levi is very close and he is touching Erwin’s skin and for one heart stopping moment, Erwin’s whole body buzzes in white, violent _relief._

He opens his eyes and finds Levi staring at him, shock on his face, eyes glazed and lips parted, nostrils flaring, and--

He draws his hand back. 

Erwin feels a vague, unexpected, gut wrenching sort of terror.

Levi says, “Uh,” and his voice comes out gruff, low, more like a growl. That awful persistent presence under Erwin’s skin buzzes again, wants to hear that sound, fuck, he wants--

_Alpha._

Levi lurches away from him, hand over his mouth. He looks like he’s going to be sick and Erwin feels everything so strongly all at once. Rage and sorrow vying for attention because what the fuck is wrong with Levi that he can just _dismiss_ people like that, that he can be _disgusted_ by Erwin’s existence, and why, _why_ isn’t he touching Erwin right now. Right _now._

Erwin sees Levi swallow and keep his hand locked over his face. With the other, he untangles his cravat from his neck, ties it over his own mouth and nose. When he does, Erwin is swamped by the smell of him, and it’s overwhelming and so incredible he feels very suddenly delirious on it. 

Levi comes close slowly, like he’s approaching a wild animal, and kneels, one hand coming out and grasping Erwin’s left elbow. If Erwin were a lesser man he would have moaned. “You should go in the cockpit.” 

“It’s too hot,” Erwin complains, sounding, for one moment, like a child. 

“I’ll make you some ice,” Levi says. “Come on.” 

Erwin glares at him and pulls his elbow away. Levi watches him over the cravat, eyes dark and painfully beautiful and Erwin wishes so badly he couldn’t smell him, wishes so badly he didn’t smell like the most amazing thing Erwin has ever encountered in his life. He didn’t know it was possible to smell that good. 

Levi squeezes his eyes shut and takes a breath. “Erwin, you’re…” he trails off, motions to his neck, and Erwin feels his stomach fall out of his body. He’s not used to his scenting actually _functioning._ He’s. It’s like he’s broadcasting his thoughts and he’s powerless to stop it. 

He stands, rushes to the cockpit, and locks himself inside. 

***

Levi sits very very still, breathing slowly, deeply. He tells himself he’s trying to stay calm, clear headed. He tells himself it isn’t because this spot smells like Erwin. 

It’s like nothing he’s ever experienced before. He’s spent hours laying at Erwin’s side, directing his shots, and he _knows_ what Erwin smells like. Knows the scent of the soap he uses and the pomade he puts in his hair. They are not military issue and they smell distinctly like Erwin. Knows his face paint and the oil from his gun and the dirt-and-green-things smell that works its way into his ghillie suit. Knows his sweat. He is ashamed to admit that last part, but Erwin smells so good when the heat gets to him, it’s always made Levi feel a little dirty. In any other person he finds it repulsive, but in Erwin it’s…

And this, this is all that but multiplied a hundred fold and Levi feels like he’s choking on it. 

It disperses and Levi _misses_ it. 

It feels wrong. He’d been _so convinced_ Erwin was like him and he doesn't know what to do with this information. It doesn’t feel right. Erwin is broad and strong and commands so _effortlessly_ and Levi has never known an omega to look or act like he does. Hell, most people think _Levi_ is--

Oh. 

No wonder Erwin had looked so shocked when Levi suggested they split up. That wasn’t what omegas _did,_ omegas in heat all clustered together and protected each other and consoled each other when they were alone until one of them found an alpha and went off somewhere. Alphas were the ones who stayed alone when they didn’t want to fuck. 

Levi only moves when he’s sure he isn’t going to rip the cockpit door of the hinges and--

No. 

No. 

He is not that kind of man. He has never been that kind of man, the kind of person to lose his fucking mind over a mate--

He swallows hard because that’s not a word he should even be _thinking,_ that’s his alpha talking, waking up and looking around for the closest omega and if that just so happens to be the single person Levi is most devoted to in the world, well--

No. 

Levi digs ice packs out of one of the medical supply crates. There are a lot of them-- thin plastic pouches that expand and go icy when the little capsule in the middle is cracked. Levi had used some for Erwin’s arm, and he’ll probably want to save some for that, but they have enough that he can give Erwin maybe a ten pack. If he needs them. 

Levi doesn’t know what he needs. That’s the worst part. He doesn’t know how to help. He spent so long avoiding this exact situation, he doesn’t _know anything._

He cracks two of the icepacks, and finds a canteen with freshly filtered water. 

“Erwin?” Levi stands outside the door to the cockpit, because he’s afraid if he walks up to the other side of their shelter, the side with the space blankets, he’ll do something foolish, like tear it down and surge inside and--

Erwin doesn’t answer him. “Ice,” Levi says. “I have ice. And water.” 

Erwin says, “Leave it.” 

Levi puts his hand on the door, and then decides instead to slide the items under one of the space blankets after all. That seems safer than opening the door. 

When he is done, he walks back around to the cockpit door and hovers there awkwardly. “Are. Are you alright?” 

He hears Erwin laugh bitterly. “What do you think is wrong with me?” 

That doesn’t sound like Erwin. That voice sounds short and petty and agitated. 

“I don’t know,” Levi says, a little testy himself now. “I’ve never. You know. _Seen_ someone fucking--”

“Right, Erwin says. “You hate the way we smell.” 

Levi bristles even as his heart clenches. “That’s not what I meant.” 

“That’s what you said.”

“I _meant,”_ Levi snaps, “That when the whole fucking underground goes into heat all at once it’s--”

“It’s what.” 

“Place fucking stunk on the best day,” Levi says, sounding sulky now. He puts his back to the cockpit door and sits down. “Cram dozens of dirty people together who are lucky if they found a place to shower that week and then put-- _pheromones--_ on top of it…” Levi trails off with a shudder. 

Erwin doesn’t smell like that. 

Erwin smells like heaven. 

Erwin has gone quiet, but Levi realizes he knows where he is. He is sitting on the other side of the door. Levi can pinpoint where that smell is coming from, even with a metal door between them, and it’s so close. 

It hits him hard, fast, and he recognizes the mind numbing fervor of a rut, but multiplied past anything he’s ever experienced, past even his _first_ rut and he digs his nails-- claws, his claws-- into the dirt at his sides, tries to breathe through it. 

“Levi.” 

Erwin’s voice is calm and steady instead of annoyed and sulky and it shoots through Levi like a drug. 

“Levi, are you--”

“‘M fine. Tell, tell me if you need anything. I. Need a walk.” 

He stands and Erwin’s voice is suddenly panicked on the other side of the cockpit door. “Don’t _leave.”_

_Don’t leave don’t leave don’t leave he says he needs don’t leave--_

“That you or the hormones talking?” Levi asks, because of course Erwin wants him to stay close, to keep him safe, because that’s what alphas _do,_ they protect their omegas--

No.

Erwin doesn’t answer, and Levi finds a case with one of the hand guns. He slides it into their shelter and then he leaves. 

***

The cockpit feels so close. Stifling. The ice helps, and the water, but nothing else brings Erwin the relief he needs. He considers telling Levi to give him a sedative, but he knows that’s a bad idea. They almost never sedate omegas through heats. That’s how people end up fucking in thier sleep and winding up knocked up without remembering how. That particular issue isn’t something Erwin needs to worry about, but he certainly doesn’t need to sleep walk into Levi bedroll. 

Fuck that would be. Very bad. Very, very bad. 

He needs something though. He feels like he’s _dying._ He’s soaked with sweat. He’s already shirtless, but he strips his pants off too, and realizes with a shock of fury and embarrassment that they are not just wet with sweat. He absolutely refuses to take his boxer briefs off. He doesn’t want to see, doesn’t want to be tempted to _touch_ himself, not that it would help at all. 

He tries to lay on his bedroll and can’t get comfortable. He tries to lay on Levi’s bedroll and that seems to be a _little_ bit better, but it’s still not enough…

He is going crazy. He is. He doesn’t remember it ever being this bad before, but he was so young the last time this happened, and he’d been prepared for it, had a room, and access to a cool shower, and _toys--_

He knows Levi is gone because the lingering smell of him is so weak, and he lurches from the cockpit. He’s not stupid enough to think he’d find a heat toy in thier medical supplies because that would make no fucking sense, but maybe there’s something he can use--

He draws up short because that’s a truly ridiculous idea, and instead finds another pain pill for his arm. Those make him a little tired, but not the way a sedative does, and they also take the edge off everything, make things less intense. 

After he swallows the pill, he looks around the campsite because he still feels that deep, consuming ache in his gut, and a voice in his head telling him still _needs_ something, he needs something that’s here right in front of him and if he could just figure it out, he’d feel better, if he could just figure it out--

***

Levi walks for minutes that feel like hours. He walks the whole length of the island as slowly as he can, feels a horrible, insistent agitation crawling under his skin and he can’t shake it. 

When he gets to the far end of the island, he gives in and jerks off and hates himself for it, but what the fuck else is he supposed to do? His cock feels too hot in his hand and it _aches_ but not touching it is _worse_ somehow. 

He comes too fast and it’s the most unsatisfying thing he has ever felt in his life. But he at least has a few minutes of clear headedness and he realizes he really should go back to Erwin. Outside the _heat_ issue, Erwin needs Levi for anything that requires more than one hand, and he needs Levi to make sure his bandages stay clean, and he takes his antibiotics at the right time and, he needs, he _needs_ Levi and Levi _left him,_ and what is _wrong_ with him, what a fool he is, what a bad, _bad alpha--_

Levi gets back to the camp and everything feels wrong. 

Erwin’s scent drenches the place. It is _everywhere_ and there is so much _panic_ and distress, Levi can smell it and he scents back without meaning to, panic of his own, because where, _where--_

“Erwin?”

Levi hears a shocked gasp from the cockpit and he almost goes limp in relief. 

“Are you alright?” he says, flinging himself back at the door again, and now that he’s started scenting he can’t really seem to stop, sending out waves of, of reassurance, so Erwin knows he is here and he won’t leave again, he’ll make sure, he’ll make sure Erwin is _safe--_

“Gimme your jacket.” 

Erwin’s voice shocks Levi into stillness. It’s loud and firm and dripping with command, the same command he uses in the middle of a fucking battle when he needs more bullets for his gun and Levi takes off the jacket without thinking about it, like his fingers don’t belong to him. 

He scrambles to the side and flings it under the nearest space blanket and then realizes the campsite feels wrong because it has been stripped of every single soft thing in sight. The chairs from the cockpit, the cushions, the clothes they washed in the river that were hanging up to dry. The case that held their ghillie suits is open and overturned. All their most delicate equipment is sitting in the grass; the padding and foam has been torn from their armoured cases. 

Levi hears Erwin snatch the jacket from the ground and then he smells-- _contentment_ waft from all the cracks in their shelter.

Before he can think better of it, he takes off his cravat and passes it under the blanket. 

It’s quiet in the shelter for a few seconds, and then Levi hears the rustle of the fabric. 

He gets up and goes back to the door of the cockpit, where he can smell Erwin without being overwhelmed by him, and sits. He hears Erwin moving around, hears fabrics brushing fabric, hears Erwin settling down, and then _finally_ there is silence. 

“I thought you were like me,” Levi says quietly. Erwin doesn’t respond. “Thought we’d be _fighting.”_

Erwin huffs a quiet laugh. His voice is alarmingly steady when he says, “Oh, did you.” 

Levi is impressed. Impressed Erwin seems to be mostly in control of his faculties when Levi knows how hard it is for him to maintain his own right now. 

Levi says quietly, “Ruts piss me off.” 

He is glad to be sitting here, glad he is back at camp. 

It takes him much longer than it should to realize Erwin is scenting him, keeping him calm. It should make him angry, but it doesn’t. After all, he had been doing the same thing. 

“Don’t like feeling like I’m not. In control,” Levi says carefully. 

Erwin laughs again and says, “But have you ever _really--”_

“No.” He hasn’t. He’s never really lost control the way some do. He’s always been sensible enough to ignore it all and lock himself away and minimize annoyances. 

He feels like he should be more annoyed than he is, actually. He had been when he’d gotten back to camp. He’d been so anxious and angry and ready to hit something, especially something that looked like it might try to hurt Erwin, but he doesn’t feel like that now. 

He feels almost drunk. Relaxed--or-- no. That’s not the right word for it. _Content_ maybe. The panic is gone, like he doesn’t have to worry about anything and he’s not used to feeling like that. 

Erwin is quiet and Levi’s thoughts drift and before he knows what he’s saying, he has spoken. “Fuck, you smell good.” 

He doesn’t know he has spoken until Erwin says his name, tight, and a little shocked. 

Then he realizes he is leaning his head against the cockpit door, absently stroking himself over his pants, sucking in lungfuls of intoxicating air and he’s--

Fuck, he can feel his fangs in his mouth and when he looks down at his hands he can see the tips of his claws extending and he does feel sensless now. Truly, utterly senseless. There is an omega on the other side of that door, sending out wave upon wave of undiluted desperate _need_ at him and he can’t think what he’s _doing_ here, why he isn’t _in there_. 

“Levi.” 

He grunts in response. 

Erwin’s voice sounds almost pained when he says, “Get away from the door.” 

But there is command in it too, command in every decibel and Levi is powerless to ignore a command given like that, a command from hs omega, his-- no-- his _Erwin-- his--_

He sits in the dirt on the other side of the campsite, tries to catch his breath and ends up burying his face in his hands and whining in impotent fury like a caged dog. He doesn’t move though. He doesn’t go back to the door. Omega said no. 

***

Erwin presses Levi’s cravat to his face and inhales. He does it over and over and over again because it is the only time anything feels _right._ He feels like he’s drowning. 

It had been so hard to order Levi away from the door. It had been so hard because all he wanted to do was open that door and beg Levi to come in, to _help him,_ to--

Fuck, he can’t even _think_ around it anymore, he wants Levi to fuck him like he’d never been fucked in his life, wants Levi to fill him, and own him, and hold him, and talk to him, and _be with_ him and he feels so young and powerless in the face of all that want. He’d _always_ wanted Levi but this is worse. Or. Maybe that makes it worse. Maybe wanting him so badly for so long-- 

But he can’t, he can’t take advantage, he can’t, not when they are both barely themselves. It would be awful if he used Levi like that. A betrayal. When they came down, how could he possibly explain to Levi that he’d wanted Levi from the moment he saw him? 

Fucking shit, this was awful. Awful. The feel of it. 

He needs to eat. He needs to leave the fucking cockpit and get food and water and it’s time for his antibiotic and he doesn’t know how he is supposed to do any of that with Levi out there, and also when all of Erwin’s pants are in a pile in the middle of the shelter and most of them have at least a _little_ slick and heat sweat on them. 

Levi’s voice comes from across the clearing. “What’s wrong?” 

“Hungry.” Erwin answers automatically, doesn’t even wonder how Levi knows something is wrong in the first place. 

Fucking scenting. This, this right here is the main reason the military insists on suppressants. Because most people don’t have perfect control over their scenting even in the best of times and things like distress and fear and need makes overactive scent glands go crazy. 

Levi grunts in response and then Erwin hears him moving around the campsite. A few minutes later, Levi shoves a mess bowl with canned tuna salad and crackers under the space blanket, and a fresh canteen of water, and Erwin’s antibiotic. 

“How’s your arm?” he asks, voice so gruff and low it sends shivers down Erwin’s spine. 

“Okay.” 

“Bandages…” 

Erwin looks down at his arm and realizes with a surge of fear that Levi is right. They need to be changed and Erwin can’t do that himself. He can’t. 

“Can it wait,” he says, trying to inject some humor into his voice. 

Levi huffs a laugh too. “Don’t think we should risk it.”

Erwin nods and realizes Levi can’t see him. “Get. I’ll be out in a second.” 

He eats his tuna salad and swallows the antibiotic and tries to calm the shaking in his fingers. He tries to find a pair of pants that aren’t terrible, and then he opens the door to find Levi sitting just outside, all his supplies in his hands. 

His eyes meet Erwin’s and Erwin watches them glaze, watches his hands get tight around the gauze roll, watches heat come into his cheeks, and he says, “Fuck. 

***

Levi breathes deeply, through his mouth, was a fool for not realizing he should be doing that already. 

The cockpit _smells_ like heat, like Erwin, but Erwin smell all twisted up in sex and blood-pounding need and he almost-- 

“Fuck.” 

Erwin has gone very still. He looks like a startled rabbit and it makes Levi force himself to be calm. Erwin looks _scared_ of him and he _hates_ that. 

He also looks--

He’s shirtless and his chest is flushed and his _nipples--_

Levi swallows and looks away. He should not be looking at Erwin’s nipples. Erwin’s nipples are none of his business, even if they do look swollen and erect and too, too pink. Erwin’s cheeks are pink too, and his hair is standing on end like he’s been pulling on it and--

“Levi.” 

“I’m alright,” he says quickly. “Let’s get this over with.”

Erwin scowls and sits on the cockpit door jam, arm turned toward Levi so Levi can tend to him. 

He thinks about telling Erwin to move away from the cockpit because it smells like a-- like a nest, that animal voice in his head supplies-- but then he just… doesn’t. 

It’s shameful. He wants to touch Erwin. He needs to even if it’s just for this, just to change the bandages on his arm. 

They are both so still while Levi does it. Levi moves slower than he should be, breathing him in, feeling Erwin’s skin under his fingertips. 

He can’t. He can’t _do this_ for the next _week._ It’s been half a day and he’s going _crazy._

“Gotta go,” Levi says gruffly, all at once. Erwin turns and looks at him, panic is his stunning blue eyes. It’s animal panic, something planted deep in Erwin’s biology that tells him to stick close to an alpha, Levi _knows_ that’s what it is, but seeing it still tears him apart. 

“Go?” 

“Can’t-- can’t stand--” 

“Levi--”

“Want you so bad.” 

Levi says it as he is fastening the end of the bandage into place and then he goes perfectly still, realizes what he’s done. He can’t even look at Erwin right now, can’t see what emotion that statement brought out of him. Under normal circumstances, he would expect nothing but disgust and maybe a hint of pity. It would almost be worse if he found interest. 

“‘M sorry,” Levi says, trying to take it back, to erase it, to-- “Fuck.” Erwin is scenting again, but Levi can tell he’s trying not to, that he’s trying to hold it back, and it’s-- he can _smell_ shock, and-- fuck, _fuck, pleasure,_ and _desire--_ and-- slick. 

Erwin says, “That’s just--” 

And like a fool, Levi blurts, “No. No. Always. Every day. Every minute, every second. Always. Want.”

And then because he is a desperate, _foolish_ alpha in the middle of the worst rut of his life, he spits, “Can, can help, and then-- after-- just-- find you a new spo--” Because of course Levi knows how this will go. Erwin will agree. Of course he will, because Levi is the only one here and if Erwin is anything like Levi he feels like he’s actually, _literally_ dying right now, so of course he’ll agree, and when everything is over, and when they can finally go home, Erwin won’t even be able to look at him for the disgust. They can be reassigned. Never. 

Never see each other again. 

No. 

No, Levi can suffer, that would be better, this would be better than never--

“Gotta go, see?” Levi says quickly. “Feel like I’m going crazy.” 

Erwin says, “Always?” 

Levi makes the mistake of looking at him. 

He lifts his eyes and finds himself stuck in Erwin’s gaze, so piercing, so blue, like he knows all the secrets in Levi’s heart and _fuck_ what had Levi just _said_ to him--

“Uh. I. Just.” 

Erwin’s hand is shaking. Levi can see it. 

Levi says, “Goddamn it,” and surges up, puts both his hands on Erwin’s cheeks, kisses him hard enough that they both fall back into the cockpit, Levi sprawled on Erwin’s chest, and it feels so good, he tastes so good, _Erwin,_ his--

Erwin kisses back. He _moans,_ low and deep and shivers all over and the smell of him is everywhere, filling Levi up, making him feel high on how much Erwin wants him, needs him, he can feel it, Erwin needs him--

Erwin breaks away and Levi chases his lips, senseless and desperate, out of his mind, and he knows it, he fucking knows it, he knows he’s a fool, he’s such a fucking fool, and he’s mumbling, “Perfect, so-- smell so--taste so good, such a perfect fucking-- gonna fill you up so good, gonna, gonna fuck you so--” 

There is a sudden, rushing in his ears, a twisting all around him, and it’s like when the helicopter crashed, when the world had to skip to catch back up, and he finds himself on his back, Erwin’s massive hand spread out over his cheek and pinning him to the floor. 

They’re both panting, breathing hard, and Erwin is leering at him, teeth bared and fangs exposed. His claws are extended, pressing into Levi’s face in a clear warning, and Levi knows in his mind he needs to lay very still and beg forgiveness, but his body wants to fight, wants to show Erwin how strong he is, what a strong, capable alpha, he can take care, he can fuck Erwin so good, if he’ll just--

“Lay _still,”_ Erwin snarls and Levi does because, because-- 

Because Omega said so.

Levi goes still, and Erwin takes his hand from Levi’s face. 

He looks Levi in the eye and he looks practically feral, crazed, he is _grinning_ but it’s not like any expression Levi has ever seen on his face before. And his teeth-- Levi can see his fangs, fully extended. 

Erwin drags his hand down Levi’s chest and Levi’s brain fuzzes over. His shirt tears, falls open, and Erwin makes this _sound,_ this wonderful, animal purr, and-- 

Levi says carefully, “Erwin.” 

Erwin’s eyes flip up to his and Levi knows he was right to speak carefully. Erwin floods the air with pheromones, with _calm,_ with _want,_ with _need,_ and Levi goes limp and pliant and if he didn’t want Erwin so bad, he’d be angry. 

He does though. 

He does want Erwin _so bad._

Erwin tilts forward and pushes his nose under Levi’s ear, nuzzles into his neck and _licks_ him and all at once Levi is so hard it hurts. He’s been half hard all day and now-- fuck-- he-- he can’t think straight. Erwin is still licking his neck and he wants, he wants Erwin to _bite_ him, he wants that _so badly,_ and he lifts his chin, leaves himself open and vulnerable in a move that he knows-- this feel _backwards,_ this is what _omegas_ do, they lay still and vulnerable and open and let their alphas take care of them and that’s not, Erwin isn’t--

“ _Good_ alpha.” 

Levi melts.

Erwin sets his teeth at a spot right under Levi’s ear and doesn’t bite down, just lets Levi feel it, and Levi _whimpers,_ “Yes, yes, yes.” 

“Take care of you.” 

“ _Shit,_ fuck, _god,_ yes.” 

Erwin finally pulls away from him and Levi puts his face in his hands again, whines and groans, because he doesn’t know what to do, he’s so hard it’s making his _head_ hurt and if Erwin doesn’t touch him _right now--_

“Move.” 

Levi opens his eyes and follows Erwin’s gaze to the bed Erwin has made. Erwin leans off of him and Levi throws himself into it, head chanting at him _move move move move move--_

Erwin tugs at his pants while he does, and Levi kicks his own boots, and he doesn’t remember _exactly_ how he ended up naked but he is, and Erwin is on top of him again, close to him, face pressed into Levi’s neck again, so Levi can’t straighten his head out and if anybody else did that to Levi he’d beat the shit out of them, but this is _Erwin_ and it just makes him feel helpless in the most delirious way. 

He lifts his hands to Erwin’s hips, rakes at Erwin’s pants with his fingertips and Erwin hisses, “Lay. _Still.”_

Levi does, shivers all over, and something in the raw power in Erwin’s voice shocks him out of his mindlessness, brings him back to himself enough that he says as firmly as he can manage, “Erwin.” 

Erwin ignores him at first, makes a strange low sound in Levi’s ear that reminds Levi of a cat chirping at a bird it can’t reach. It takes a massive amount of effort for Levi to say again, “Erwin.” 

“What.” 

Levi is naked. Erwin is sitting on top of him pressing down on his hips, grinding against his cock, and Levi has to know, he _needs_ to know that they’re not making the biggest mistake either of them has ever made concerning the other, he needs to know that and he says, “Look at me.” 

Erwin’s answer is immediate. “I always look at you.” 

Levi grits his teeth, almost bites his tongue to keep himself focused, and he carefully lowers his chin so he can meet Erwin’s eyes. He is so beautiful that it makes Levi’s heart ache. 

And all he can manage is a tight, strained, “You sure?” 

Erwin says, “Are you?” 

And Levi does something so honest, so painfully naked and true, he knows, he _knows_ he is so deep in his rut he might never come out. Because he would never make this so plain if he was in his right mind, he would never show himself like this, no matter how real it was. 

He rolls his head to the side, deliberate, and obvious, and raises his chin.

Erwin leans forward with a sharp, pleased, predatory sound and sinks his teeth into Levi’s neck right over his scent gland, right where--

He isn’t gentle at all. He bites Levi so hard Levi’s vision whites out and Erwin doesn’t let go and Levi can’t help it. He moans, shamelessly, wantonly, because he has never felt so claimed, so owned, so entirely dominated in his life, and it hurts and it feels _so good_ and he feels like he can feel Erwin too, feel what he’s feeling, feel how badly he wants Levi and it’s just as badly as Levi wants him. 

He is so destroyed, so undone by the feel of Erwin’s mouth locked over his neck, he doesn’t realize Erwin’s pants are gone, but somehow Erwin is exposed, his fatigues and boxer briefs falling in tatters around their waists and Levi’s cock and thighs and hips are soaked with slick. Before Levi can make sense of it, Erwin is sinking onto his cock, too fast, so fast when Levi wanted him to go slow, take his time.

He still hasn’t let Levi go and Erwin _moans,_ fuck, he moans so low in his throat and bites down even harder and Levi almost comes. He stops fisting his hands in the fabric at his sides. He stops writhing under Erwin’s hips. For the first time he lays truly, perfectly still, and Erwin _licks_ him again without releasing Levi from his teeth and starts to roll his hips and this is more than Levi had ever wanted or hoped for. 

“Erwin.” His voice doesn’t sound like it belongs to him. It’s slurred and low and dazed, barely human. “Feel. So. Erwin.” 

_God, fuck,_ that’s-- hearing the name drives it all home, makes it so clear this is _Erwin,_ it’s _Erwin_ and Levi tries to turn his head, says, suddenly frantic, “Let me, let me, let me fuck you, let me, you-- fuck you so good, so good, give it to you so--”

Erwin finally releases the rabid, animal grip he has on Levi’s neck and put his lips against Levi’s cheek, strokes his hand over Levi’s hair when he says, “Shh, alpha, good, good alpha, I’ll make you feel so good.” 

He can tell Erwin is gone again, lost in his heat, but the things he says-- Levi has never felt more aroused or more uncomfortable in his life, and as much as he loved hearing Erwin say it, he’d hated it too, and he says, “No, no, not-- not alpha--”

“My alpha.” 

“Erwin,” Levi pleads, even though those words are kicking around in his head, _my alpha my alpha my--_ over and over again. Because he doesn’t want to just be _alpha,_ he doesn’t want to be a, a _chemical necessity,_ a biological imperative, but Erwin smells so good and he _feels_ so good, so tight and wet and hot, and he’s _riding_ Levi with every ounce of athleticism he has in that incredible body of his, and it’s posessive and confident and so, so sure, and there is a big part of Levi that wants to be, _needs to be_ a _good, good alpha, good--_ “Oh, _fuck,_ yes--” 

Erwin sits back and Levi’s cock sinks deep inside him, deep enough to punch a guttural moan from Erwin’s lips, and he lifts up on his knees before he sinks down again, so deep, fuck, so _deep_ inside--

“ _Erwin._ ” Levi says it like a curse. 

“Levi.” 

It is the single most obscene sound Levi has ever heard in his life. 

It makes him come. 

He hadn’t been expecting it, hadn’t been ready for it, but the tremor that rolls through his body at hearing Erwin _moan_ his name like that makes everything pulse at once and his cock doesn’t stop pulsing, so Levi can feel every inch of Erwin’s wet cunt squeezing around him, feel the way the growing swell of his knot catches until Erwin can’t roll his hips anymore, until he’s stuck just rocking against Levi’s thighs, moaning and sighing until his voice goes high and breathy. He wails when he comes, clenches so hard around Levi’s knot and splatters them both with come and Levi has never heard a sound so unabashedly euphoric. 

And then they are laying draped on top of each other, panting, breathing so hard, and clinging to each other and Levi is coming back to himself like he’d been gone for a long time and he’s afraid to move or speak. 

He. Usually he hates this part. This was why he didn’t knot people, no matter how fucking good it felt. Because he couldn’t _escape_ after and he doesn’t know what it worse: that he can’t escape or that he is glad he can’t. 

That makes him feel guilty, feel horribly ashamed, makes him think of what a fool he was, and he’d even let Erwin-- 

_Shit._

“Jesus christ.” 

Erwin hums in his ear, and he sounds. Fuck, he sounds _happy._

But then he sits up all at once and looks down at Levi with a shocked, panicked expression on his face, and his eyes go to Levi’s neck. Levi draws his hand up reflexivly, covers the mark (fucking, it’s a fucking _mate bite_ is what it is, he’d let-- and Erwin had-- _shit--)_ and stares back at Erwin with no idea what to do, or what to say. 

Erwin breaks the awful silence. 

“Does it hurt?” 

Levi shakes his head too fast. It throbs. It tingles. It feels almost as good as coming in Erwin’s pussy had. 

Erwin says quietly, “I should have asked.” 

Levi laughs, sharp and surprised. “I told you to.” 

Erwin stares down at him and Levi stares back. Levi is shocked when Erwin says very quietly, “Did you mean it.” 

Levi can’t think of a reason to lie, can’t think of the point of it. “Yes.” 

Erwin kisses him. It feels real. It feels present. Intentional. 

Levi weaves his fingers into Erwin’s hair and kisses him back, kisses him deep and free and realizes that was easier than it should have been because he can _feel_ Erwin now when he couldn’t before, he can feel--

Levi doesn’t want to say love. That feels sentimental, naive. But he can feel. Adoration. Devotion. Desire. 

He feels _sure_ where he didn’t before, sure that Erwin _wants_ him. 

It is a strange thing to know. 

Erwin whimpers against Levi’s lips, soft and needy, and the smell of him tells Levi what he wants. Levi grabs him by the hips to be sure, fucks up into him and feels him shiver and moan at the press of Levi’s knot. 

Levi strokes his hands over Erwin’s hair, his back, his neck. “Just a minute, just a minute more, promise, I’ll-- promise, gonna--”

Erwin presses his face into the mate bite, kisses it and then licks it again and Levi suddenly _shakes._

“Promise, promise, I’ll fuck you so good, you want me to, you want me to fuck you good, Erwin don’t you, don’t--”

“God, fuck, yes. Fuck. Levi. Yes.” 

Levi kisses him, rabid now, licks at him and pulls his hair, holds Erwin to him until he finally, _finally_ feels himself slip free. Erwin makes a sound like he’s crying and Levi has never been so quickly and efficiently gutted. 

He pushes Erwin over, is relieved when Erwin lets him. And even though they just did this, even though he just-- there is a moment, when he is sitting between Erwin’s spread thighs, staring at Erwin’s heaving chest and his glazed, desperate eyes and his--

Levi swallows so loud he knows Erwin hears it but the sight of him, of his slick covered cock and ass and cunt and Levi had just, he’d-- that’s _his come,_ mingling with Erwin’s slick and sweat and he can’t--

He throws himself down, bends almost double, and buries his face between Erwin’s legs. 

Erwin gasps harshly, back bending, hips lifting up off the ground as Levi licks into him. He curls his hands in Levi’s hair, nails scraping over Levi’s scalp, moans Levi’s name again. 

Levi can’t get enough of him, of the taste of him, the smell of him, overwhelming here where Levi has his tongue pressed inside Erwin’s body. 

Erwin whines and bucks at Levi’s mouth and grabs his own cock with a harsh shout, but Levi knows what he wants, knows this is cruel teasing at this point, that Erwin _needs_ Levi inside him and more than just his tongue. 

But he can’t pull away, can’t stop swirling his tongue against Erwin’s soft skin, feeling him moan and shake with every motion Levi makes. 

“Le-Levi--” Erwin chokes out around a gasp, a note of complaint, or desperation in his voice. Levi slide two fingers inside and the pleading, frustrated noise Erwin makes threatens to break Levi’s heart. 

“Stop it,” he hisses out. He’s bending and unbending his legs restlessly, hooking blankets with his toes, squeezing Levi’s shoulders with his knees. That same commanding note is back, burrowing under Levi’s skin and telling him _stop it stop it stop it stop_

_“Fuck me.”_

He says it around a long, drawn out sigh, infuses so much authority into his tone somehow that Levi pulls back immeditaly, nods almost to himself, thinks _fuck him fuck him do it fuck him do it._

So he does. 

*** Erwin goes limp and wails the second time he feels Levi’s cock slid inside him. He doesn’t feel like a person anymore, doesn’t feel like anything that isn’t sheer unadulterated need. He wants to open his eyes, wants to watch Levi when he pushes in too slow and too fast at once, wants to see the look on his face as he sees his own cock disappearing into Erwin’s wet cunt but Erwin can’t do anything except lay here and, and--

“ _Yes, yes, good-- alpha, my-- good-- so good--”_ Levi doesn’t want to hear that, he _knows_ he doesn’t, he’d _come_ just from hearing Erwin moan his name, but Erwin still can’t seem to make his lips do more than-- “Fuck me, fuck me, yes, alpha, alpha, _yes--”_

Levi sniffles, makes an odd, strangled sort of noise, and then bends forward, buries his nose against Erwin’s neck and _purrs_ in that low, rich, soul shaking voice of his, “Told you, fuck you so good, so good, such a beautiful, _perfect_ fucking omega, you-- Erwin-- fuck, you’re so perfect, you’re _so perfect,_ you feel so good, omega--” 

Erwin curls his arm over Levi’s slight, muscular back. Levi. Levi is. It’s _Levi._ His spotter, his comrade, his shadow, his utterly devoted, loyal servant, and Erwin had never let himself think those words, but he knows, he’s always known what Levi is to him, always known that Levi would kill for him, but more than that, that Levi would die for him, and now--

His alpha. His _mate._

He thinks it and it decimates him, claws through him, feels like it’s arching out of his chest, and Levi gasps and moans and before Erwin can make sense of anything, Levi bites him. 

It’s wrong, not where it should be, not where Erwin _needs_ him-- he sinks his teeth into Erwin’s shoulder, quick and sharp, and then Erwin’s neck, just under his ear, and then his earlobe, and Erwin twists and gasps, beyond words at the way Levi can’t seem to stop nipping up and down his neck and shoulder and over his chest and when he sits back up, Erwin’s arm, the tips of his fingers. 

It surprises Erwin when he comes, shocks him before it destroys him, and Levi isn’t done yet, just keeps fucking him in that same hard, bruising rythm that isn’t quite fast enough. 

He rubs his palm over Erwin’s lips, his cheek, and says, “Come, come for me, sweetheart, do it again--”

Erwin’s toes curl against the floor. His chest seizes and his lungs catch and Levi just keeps _going,_ keeps pounding into that same spot over, and over, and over again, and--

“Please, please sweetheart, omega, _my--”_ He stops himself, Erwin is lucid enough to know that much but just the hint of what he’d almost said, the _my_ when it was true, Erwin was _his,_ forever, forever, for--

He hovers in that place, chest aching for air, feeling like if he moves at all he’ll lose it, and he wants _so badly--_

Levi wraps his rough, strong hand around Erwin’s cock, strokes him off while he fucks him, and _purrs_ when Erwin comes again. 

There is no escaping it. Erwin sags, flushed and hot and exhausted and still the thought of Levi leaving him empty makes him want to scream. Levi is quiet this time, when he comes, grips Erwin’s hips with bruising strength and shakes through it and the feel of him suddenly filling Erwin _so much,_ the _swell_ of him-- it sends a shockwave of mind numbing pleasure through Erwin’s body and he’s almost sure if he wasn’t so exhausted he would have come _again._ He makes a sound like he is, buries his lips against Levi’s palm.

It’s too much. Erwin’s been fucked plenty of times, and he’s never _been like this._ He’s never been a hair trigger, never come like a cascade of water over a stepped path, one right after the other, each dragged by the one before. His thighs are shaking. He’s drenched in sweat and slick and come. 

For the first time since-- his arm doesn’t hurt. 

Levi whimpers, makes short aborted little jerking motions against Erwin’s hips. He palms Erwin’s cock, soft and gentle, and Erwin jumps and keens all of a sudden, so oversensitized, and still _so hard_ it hurts. 

And that’s it. His arm doesn’t hurt but his cock and cunt and even his _ass_ ache and the insides of his thighs ache and his chest aches and his neck and he sounds pathetic, not at all himself, when he whispers, “Levi. Levi, _please.”_

Levi wordlessly sooths his come soaked hand over Erwin’s cheek, gentles at him and makes Erwin’s head swim with a sudden flood of pheromones, of reassurance, and desire and Erwin knows it will be a long time before either of them can make this stop. 

Sometime after that, and Erwin is not at all sure how long, Levi lays across Erwin’s chest, still buried so deep Erwin can’t think of anything else, knot swollen and still too big, so big, Erwin is sure he can’t take it even though he has, again and again, and then again and--

Levi is still fucking him in soft, short little thrusts, can only really shift himself where they’re pressed together. 

Erwin is sighing, holding him, rubbing his cheek on Levi’s hair while Levi nips and sucks at the most sensitive place on Erwin’s neck, makes Erwin feel even more overwhelmed then he does when Levi strokes Erwin’s cock, but the thought of telling him to stop is worse. 

There is no real conversation about it. Something passes between them, some sudden and inexorable understanding, and Erwin’s chin drops sideways. Levi bites over that spot on Erwin’s neck, soothes his tongue over Erwin’s skin even as he bites down hard and firm and--

There will be more later. Erwin knows there will. But for the first time, for now, this is enough. 


End file.
